My idea in terms of managing a narrative or in thinking in my creative life is that you could easily argue that the past the present and the future all occur simultaneously and if you can postulate that then you're not strictly bound to a linear narrative.
There are those people who are in your corner no matter what you can't do any wrong even when you do wrong. And then there are those people that no matter what you do they are going to dislike you and that's not going to change.